Last Entry From Inside Africa

I hop on a plane in less than 24 hours to go back home. My year-long internship with Thrive is at a close. It's hard to believe that my 10 months here are at a close. It's been an amazing year and I am so thankful I've had the opportunity to come and learn and grow and especially to get clarity on what I am doing next. While it'll be weird I'm happy to return to the states and enjoy some "home culture" for the next months.

I'll write a final entry when I arrive home safely in a couple days to officially close out this blog and point you in the direction of my new one (stay tuned).

South Africa is a beautiful country with incredible landscapes and people. It was a blessing every time I ran on our base and every time I got to meet a new person. While I am not returning to Africa for long-term work (at least at the moment) I will never forget it.

Cape Town-Touristy Things

Here is a brief recap of some of the many touristy things I did while in Cape Town

1) Saw Robben Island. Very cool and historical but was done too quickly and was not able to explore at all myself. Saw Mandela's cell and very glad I went.

2) Went to Ratanga Junction, South Africa's amusement park. It was tons of fun with a couple decent roller coasters and fun rides.

3) Went to Cape point the unofficial southern-most point of the African Continent. It was beautiful. I hiked a bit and saw baboons. It was very very cool.

4) We got to hang out and shop and the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront which is tourist central in Cape Town. Right on the water with tons of shops, a huge mall and plenty of entertainment. Pretty cool.

It was a really good trip and a great way to end the year. Stay tuned for my last entry in South Africa tomorrow.

Thanksgiving

I'll get back to Cape Town tomorrow but I wanted to highlight yesterday a bit.

I think this was my first thanksgiving without any immediate family members. A little different but it was very nice. We had over 20 people, including staff, interns, Neil and Alece's friends (two families with 5 kids-aged 6 months to 5 years-between them), and Neil's mom. It was quite fun. We had good food including turkey and mashed potatoes but also with a dish you can only get in Africa, Lechwe (it was tasty by the way).
One highlight was Alece had a thanks wall where you could take a sticky note and write what you were thankful for. At one point it got a little out of hand and the wall was covered with sticky notes but it was fun. Neil's were pretty funny but also delightfully inappropriate so if you want to know what he said you have to ask.

I wanted to write about the holiday because I really only have a couple days left in Africa and after a year of many big get-togethers this is going to be the last one. It's a little weird too because 7 (yes SEVEN) of my fellow interns are coming back and they realize that while they are done being interns they will be back within 2-6 months. I won't be. I know I would not enjoy or be effective as staff here but its still weird with all the returnees.
In the end, It was great getting to know everyone here and having the community I did. I will certainly miss it.

Cape Town Continued

We left for Cape Town at 5am and arrived in Cape Town around 8pm that evening. A lovely 13 hour trip in the car. The only thing to say about the journey is how remarkably empty the country seemed to be. We drove pass miles of mostly empty countryside with little more than grass, bushes and mountains in the distance. Very pretty but not very exciting.

Once in Cape Town we drove down the peninsula a bit until we were just outside Simon's Town, the South African Navy Headquarters. We stayed in a very nice rental house that was on a hillside above the ocean. This is where we had sessions and had some of our meals. It was beautiful. Running during the week was awesome. Not only did I see a new environment, I was running at sea level which left my lungs feeling very good.

One of the first big touristy things we did was take the cable car up Table mountain which is right in the middle of Cape Town. It was amazingly beautiful on top. I got to hike a little bit and see great views of Robben Island and the city below. The cable car itself is a very quick ride but very cool. It has a rotating bottom so you can see all the different views from it. Very cool.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow.

Back from Cape Town

I made it back from Cape Town safely. Now it's really the homestretch only a few days to hangout, do thanksgiving,pack, and head to the airport on Monday.

Our trip, while visiting many tourist highlights in Cape Town, was done under the guise of a debriefing trip. We had a number of sessions where we got advice and tips from Neil and Alece about transitioning back home and making wise choices in the future. We also got to ask them any questions we had about the ministry and life and anything else you can imagine.

This was a really awesome way to end the year. It certainly brought a measure of closure to the experience, a fact that will need to really sink in once I get home.

Over the next few days stay tuned to more blog entries as I continue to write about all the stuff I did in Cape Town and finally end my blog when I arrive safely home.

"Czeching" in.

So I have a lot I could blog about but I'm going to Cape Town for debriefing for the next week. Pray for safety. When I return hopefully I'll be able to put some final entries in that sufficiently conclude this blog and this year.

In any case I wanted to tell any and all that I will be home in America from December until Julyish. I will then be going to the Czech Republic to teach for a year with the agency teachoverseas.org. I'm really excited about living there and going on to the next thing God has for me. If you have any questions please email me about it or otherwise stay tuned for more news and information.

I'll be back online November 25th. Be Blessed.

Last Week

Our internet was out for 4+ days. Sorry for the delay. Stay tuned for another entry before I leave for Cape Town on Monday!

Last week we had six South Africans visit us on the base. They were part of their own ministry and were here to learn and be trained in what Leadership Summit was about. They were busy in classes most of the time but we did get to eat meals with them and they said two things I want to highlight.
First they said to just about everyone they saw that they could tell the ministry here was run with excellence which is uncommon in Africa. This was a big deal because while excellence is one of the core values at Thrive it’s not that often you hear it recognized by people who actually live here.
Second one guy made the point that if we tried teaching our curriculum by ourselves that is, without Basotho coaches the students simply wouldn’t get it. I had not thought of that in the 9 previous months I’ve been here but it rang true. The curriculum Thrive makes and teaches is just so radical for these kids that if someone from their own culture doesn’t explain it, it won’t sink in.
A lot of ministries that seek to build up nationals into leadership are overly hesitant in letting the nationals actually take those positions. They wait so long for the nationals to be “ready” that it just doesn’t happen. Thrive is being bold in utilizing coaches and having Basothos be on their staff when their ministry is still so young. But their vision is to build up leaders and while Thrive may not be huge just yet it is accomplishing just that exact vision. It’s not always easy to put so much faith and training in nationals so quick and Thrive I’m sure has had (and will continue to have) its up and downs with training Basothos but they are being effective and doing God’s work and that is the ultimate goal.

LaunchPad Graduations Term 2

We had a second term of LaunchPad come to an end yesterday with a very festive graduation celebration. It was really fun and a more than suitable way to say goodbye to Qwa Qwa for the year.


Arriving early, we found a lot of our students dancing with a boom-box in the classroom. It never ceases to amaze me how African youth can dance and sing so easily and so well. It was a lot of fun to watch them do their thing.
Once the ceremony started it just got better. We sang and prayed, listened to some awesome testimonies about stuff the students learned (being in relationship with God and him being by our side was a common theme), and than handed out certificates. We then took pictures and had some soda and snacks.
Since it was a less formal schedule this week we got to take lots of pictures with the students and talk with them a bit. It was great to see how excited they were and to just spend time with them.
To sum it up when we left most of the students came up and gave us all a hug. It didn't matter how much we had talked to them or not, we were their teachers and they truly appreciated us.

I will never forget how kind the Basotho people are. It was a great graduation.

Fun with Thabang

This last friday we had our third to last visit to Hope House. It's weird to think that I'm not going to see these kiddies again (for a very long time at least). In any case just because the year is almost over doesn't mean I can't keep learning new things about the kiddies. For instance, this week I learned that Thabang LOVES to hit me with a fake plastic cricket bat. Can you see how happy he is? Fun times.

Back home soon...

On this day next month I will be in America. That is all...